Red Wings Game Day Preview: Familiar Territory

Happy Thursday, Hockeytown! Not only are we one work day away from the weekend, but it is also none other than Detroit Red Wings game day! The Wings flew down to St. Louis, Missouri last night in preperation to take on Alex Pietrangelo and the Blues at the Scottrade Center.

St. Louis is very familiar territory to Wings’ free agency acquisition, Steve Ott. Before becoming a free agent at the end of the 2015-2016 NHL season, Steve Ott rounded out his third season as a Blue. In his final season, Ott totaled 2 assists through 21 games with the team. This will be his first game back in St. Louis since signing his one year contract with the Wings. Aside from playing his former team tonight, Ott will also hit a career milestone, playing in his 800th NHL game.

Red Wings (5-2-0):

The Red Wings are heading into this game off of Tuesday’s 4-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes. Dylan Larkin scored not only his first goal of the young season, but his second as well. Heads were turning in the 20 year old’s direction after he went scoreless through 6 games, but now the pressure is on him to use this momentum to start netting more goals throughout the young season. Thomas Vanek also scored his fourth goal of the season and is now tied with Gustav Nyquist for the team’s point leader. Combined, the pair has 7 goals, 9 assists, and 16 points through 7 games played. Justin Abdelkader is looking to play his 6th game of the season after missing two games with a lower body injury suffered during the Wings’ home opener on October 17th. Petr Mrazek who has a SV % of .917 will start in goal tonight. The team’s lineup isn’t being released until closer to puck drop but it is a possibility that Drew Miller will sit out to make room for the return of Abdelkader.

Blues (4-2-1):

St. Louis took a 4-1 loss to the Calgary Flames in their tilt Tuesday night. Scoring the Blues lone goal was Kevin Shattenkirk, assisted by Vladimir Tarasenko and Colten Parayko. The team started off their season with a three game winning streak but seem to have lost some momentum losing 3 of their last 4 meet ups. The Blues’ leading goal scorer is Vladimir Tarasenko who has 4 goals, 4 assists and 8 points in the young 7 game season. Jake Allen is the team’s go to goalie with a SV % of .896. The line up for the home ice team is as follows:

Forwards-

Fabbri – Stastny – Steen

Lehtera – Schwartz – Tarasenko

Perron – Berglund – Yakupov

Jaskin – Brodziak – Reaves

Defense-

Bouwmeester – Pietrangelo

Bortuzzo – Shattenkirk

Edmundson – Parayko

Goalies-

Allen

More of the Matchup:

This will be the only competition between the two teams in St. Louis, they will come back to Detroit for their final match up at Joe Louis Arena on February 15th. Overall, the Wings hold a 53-66 record when on the road in St. Louis. Obviously, both teams are looking for two points in tonight’s tilt, but, Detroit is looking to extend their winning streak to 6 games while St. Louis is looking to break their 1-3 record that they have created through their last four games. The game will be broadcasted on Fox Sports Detroit and puck drop is at 8 pm sharp but above all, LETS GO WINGS!